How to counteract potato viruses?

Today the topic for our discussion is potato viruses. The Internet is replete with all kinds of advice on how to get a high and reliable potato crop. All these publications miss a very important point that became relevant five to seven years ago. And this is a big potato problem that is ubiquitous.

Potato viruses are more dangerous the more potatoes are grown in the area where the vegetable garden is located.

Potatoes are one of the most common garden crops and it is almost impossible to get rid of potatoes in the neighborhood. The carrier of viral diseases of potatoes is aphids. The aphids begin to fly before the potato begins to bloom. Having bitten the plant painfully, the aphid flies to other plants and infects. This is especially scary when you are using your own planting material. Typically, potato seeds sold by reliable nurseries are virus-free or nearly virus-free, but these seeds are expensive.

Having bought expensive seeds once, you of course want to keep them for several years and share them with your neighbors. Therefore, the measure to protect potatoes from aphids, subject to all other conditions for obtaining high yields, is also feeding, it is protection from the Colorado potato beetle, timely planting, planting at a certain depth, this is organic fertilizers, mineral fertilizers, the whole complex of measures for which so a lot of different information, if all these conditions are met, you will get a good harvest, as well as high-quality own seeds only if your potatoes are protected from viral diseases. There are a lot of them, different and they are extremely harmful and it is impossible to get rid of them through some kind of recovery in ordinary home conditions and not in special laboratories.

To get rid of aphids even before the flowering of potatoes, you need to start preventive measures. This will protect your potatoes from viruses. For adherents of organic farming, there is one effective way to control pests with vegetable oil. These methods have been known for a long time, but they have not received proper distribution among amateur gardeners. These methods are successfully used in greenhouses in our country. Many pests cannot exist in conditions when the leaves of plants are covered with something. It can be vegetable oil. In its pure form, any vegetable oil cannot be distributed over the surface of the leaves without damage - it will necessarily disrupt the gas exchange of plants, clog the stomata, and interfere with the flow of other processes in plants. Thus, pouring oil into a spray bottle and spraying plants is not very rational. It is best to use an oil emulsion. You need to take ordinary laundry soap, just not something that is prepared on the basis of laurisulfate, that is, not liquid, but ordinary, lumpy. 200 grams of soap should be grated and added 200 ml. vegetable oil. Add boiling water and prepare a soapy "chatterbox", then stir in and stir the oil in a thin stream. This amount of emulsion must be dissolved in a bucket of water. When the liquid, after complete dissolution, can be poured into a spray bottle and evenly applied to the plants. Aphids, thrips and spider mites do not like very much when their respiratory organs are clogged with oil, they become clogged so much that the pests die and this remedy is not addictive, unlike chemicals.

We hope this advice was helpful to you, because plant diseases are easier to prevent than to cure.